Fischer

Vladimir Kramnik has had a wildly uneven 2013, swinging from the highs of the Candidates Tournament and Dortmund to an abject last place at the Tal Memorial. The Alekhine Memorial was merely disappointing, and afterwards he gave a long interview to a popular Russian weekly magazine.

Boris Spassky, the Tenth World Chess Champion, today turned 75. In a long interview he talked about his introduction to chess, the road to the title and his friendship and rivalry with Bobby Fischer, as well as about his personal life, from surviving the Siege of Leningrad to his first unsuccessful marriage and moving to France.

Viktor Korchnoi, who turned 80 yesterday, is one of the great figures of twentieth-century chess, but also one of the most controversial. Evgeny Vasiukov, who’s known him for 60 years, felt compelled to voice what he considers the truth about Korchnoi, both as a man and a chess player.

For someone perhaps best known for spectacular failure – losing 6:0 to Bobby Fischer – Mark Taimanov has had the most successful of lives. A top Soviet grandmaster and a successful concert pianist, he’s now the happy octogenarian father of 6-year-old twins. He talks about his life and contemporary chess.

The death of the 7th World Champion, Vasily Smyslov (1921-2010), was one of the greatest chess losses of the last year. He featured in two year-end interviews: one with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who claimed Smyslov also encountered aliens, and the other with GM Sergey Shipov, who recalled the Smyslov he knew.

Ever since Magnus Carlsen’s shock withdrawal from the Candidates Matches it’s been suggested that Garry Kasparov was behind the decision. In a recent interview, however, Kasparov blew that theory out of the water and expressed his disapproval of his former student’s actions.

One of the last obstacles to the Candidates Matches going ahead in May this year in Kazan appears to have gone, with Teimour Radjabov deciding not to dispute the decision to replace Magnus Carlsen with Alexander Grischuk. He made the announcement in an interview with Teimour Tushiev for Extratime.az.

Boris Spassky on his recovery, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on Carlsen, Veselin Topalov on his fear of Santa Claus, and Darek Świercz makes Wijk-aan-Zee, with a little help from his trainer. Chess stories from Russia (and “Eastern Europe”) in brief.

Although Magnus Carlsen’s decision to pull out of next year’s Candidates Matches came as a great shock, perhaps we should have seen it coming. It’s worth revisiting this summer’s press, where Veselin Topalov was making the headlines, but Carlsen’s name kept cropping up.

For his 35th birthday (see Alexandra Kosteniuk’s birthday wishes), Vladimir Kramnik was interviewed by the popular Russian weekly newspaper, Argumenty i Fakty. He talks about whether friendship is possible in chess, and his troubled relationship with Gary Kasparov.